Book Reviews: Looks like Trouble to Me (Deuce is Wilder - Troubled Book 1) by Calinda B

Calinda B

about this book: Looks like Trouble to Me -- A love story, born of sorrow and pain…

Women love to read about a bad boy. If the bad boy looks like a demi-god, rides a motorcycle, gets into fights, tests limits and edges, we flock to his side of the fence, in a cluster, clumping around him like fan-girls. But what if our sex-loving bad boy wants to change? What if he wants to experience true love?

When you've lived with abuse, you tend to be shaped by abuse, like my protagonist, bad boy, Jace Savage. He's a big, strong, sexy guy. Wild and uncontrollable like his last name. When he left home, full of rage, he used his sexuality for comfort and his fists to solve conflict. He used controlling tactics to get his way. And yet, he marshalled his intelligence to forge a career, and his passion and skill to shape what he hopes to be his future as a photographer. His twin sister took an alternate route, losing herself in drugs.

When you're working your way out of the abuse, you do stupid things. Mistakes are made, some of them big ones with serious consequences. Jace will make his share along the way.

When I set out to write the erotic romance, Looks like Trouble to Me, I had no idea how deeply the story would affect me. I wondered what it would take to shape the character into someone likeable, loveable even, not the horny, selfish dude he is when the story starts. I wondered what it would take to get the character to start to assume responsibility for someone other than himself and his sexual needs. I talked to people who have experienced what he goes through. I added their life experience to my own. I found this common thread that shapes a person on a more positive path: determination -- this persistent ability to not give up, no matter what, coupled with a belief that there might be something more to life than the misery you've endured.

Looks like Trouble to Me is a love story and a celebration of what's possible. It's heaped with erotic passion, sorrow, love, tears, resistance and pain, but isn't that what love stories are made of? I know it takes time for the heart fires of passion to burn through the dross of unwillingness to surrender and give over to transformation - and Zoé and Jace have only begun. I hope, as you read Looks like Trouble to Me, you cheer the characters' efforts to change, get mad at them when they do stupid things, but you don't give up on the possibilities that lie ahead for Jace and Zoé - or for you, if you find yourself living a life less than what you'd hoped it could be.

Other book by Calinda B

Trouble is his first, middle and last name

Calinda B has done it again. She's found a way to make characters come alive and worm their way into your hearts. Jace Savage has had his share of troubles. He's run with the wrong crowd, played the field. dabbled in drugs, but that's all in the past. He has responsibilities and he's doing his best to turn his life around, at least until his sister cleans up her act and comes to get her daughter.

Zoe Dubois's a hard working student working her way through college in a field that excites her. She's on the right track when she meets Jace. She doesn't know what to do with him. He excites her like no one else can, but keeps the wrong company. There are a myriad of trust issues from her own life's journey.

Calinda brings these two together with passion, and from the start you wonder if it will be a relationship that will stand the test of time. So much angst, so much steam, so many strings that keep dragging the past into their path. As the first book of hopefully many more, this book lays the ground work with characters you love and characters that you'll love to hate. All in all, a great read! [by kph]

Yummy cover

This was a good story. Overall I had a few issues with the characters but enjoyed the plot. I am interested to see where the author goes with the series. [by Jennifer]

Gotta Love Those Bad Boys

This is the best Calinda B book yet. I love the characters and the storyline. Calinda supplies laughter, angst, romance and sex. Jace and Zoe begin a rocky relationship and steadily build on their trust of each other. I look forward to seeing where the story goes next. [by Becki Wyer]